The Soviet Union has begun to deploy long-range cruise missiles on strategic bombers and submarines, the Soviet Defense Ministry announced. It said the deployment was in response to the deployment of such weapons by the United States.
Marshal Nikolai V. Ogarkov, unexpectedly dismissed a month ago as Soviet armed forces chief of staff and first deputy defense minister, visited East Berlin and met with East German leader Erich Honecker. Western diplomatic sources in Moscow speculated that his new assignment, not yet announced by the Kremlin, is to direct the Soviet Western Command. In such post, the sources said, he would control Warsaw Pact forces throughout Eastern Europe in time of war and travel around the region in peacetime to coordinate plans. East German press reports did not specify Ogarkov’s new title or function.
Changes to improve security at American embassies were instituted by Secretary of State George P. Shultz who, for the first time since the bombing of United States Embassy in Lebanon last month, hinted that he was dissatisfied with the State Department’s handling of security measures.
The I.R.A. bomb that blew up at a hotel during the British Conservative Party conference may have been planted weeks ago and timed to go off, according to a British police official. The bomb, which killed 4 people, injured 32 and just missed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was placed in a room or under floorboards, said Commander Bill Hucklesby, the chief of Scotland Yard’s antiterrorist squad.
The two sides in Britain’s seven-month-old coal strike adjourned their negotiations today, each professing optimism that a settlement could be reached but defiantly insisting there could be no compromise on their part. After two and a half hours of talks, the head of the Government’s National Coal Board, Ian MacGregor, said he felt encouraged by the progress made over the last three days, but he added that he had “no ground to give” to hasten a resolution. Arthur Scargill, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, said that the latest formula could be successful, but that his union would not moderate its demands. The dispute is over the government board’s plans to shut 20 mines it considers uneconomic, eliminating about 20,000 jobs. Mr. Scargill insists that mines should be closed only if they are unsafe or if coal seams become depleted, and he has the support of 130,000 of Britain’s 180,000 miners.
Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, in apparent defiance of Moscow, is due to arrive in Bonn on Monday for a three-day visit that West German officials hope will improve both bilateral relations and relations with the rest of the East Bloc. Ceausescu’s scheduled visit comes after the leaders of East Germany and Bulgaria cancelled official visits to West Germany under what Western diplomats termed pressure from the Soviet Union.
The Czechoslovak Communist Party today congratulated the poet Jaroslav Seifert on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature but said the West had used his name to slander the country. Mr. Seifert, who won the prize Thursday, has been a champion of civil liberties and was a signatory of the Charter 77 human rights declaration. The party newspaper Rude Pravo said Mr. Seifert’s work “as a poet and citizen was not easy, was even controversial, but the importance of his work for our poetry is indisputable.” “Attempts have appeared in the West in connection with Seifert’s name to misuse our leading poet for slanderous attacks on his country, to use his name in the psychological war against the countries of socialism,” Rude Pravo said. “These are cynical attempts deserving of condemnation.”
Israel has not lost its political independence as the price for more economic aid from the United States, Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in an interview with Israel radio. “I was given no conditions and was not asked for any commitments,” Peres said in reference to his talks with President Reagan, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Democratic presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale. Peres indicated that he does not expect pressure on Israel to mount after the November 6 presidential election.
An Israeli Bedouin scout and a guerrilla were killed in gun battles between Israeli troops and guerrillas near the town of Jezzine in southern Lebanon, security sources in Beirut reported. An Israeli soldier was wounded. In other action, unidentified gunmen killed five people, including a member of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, in the Shia Muslim village of Libbaya, also in the south. Elsewhere, Druze and Christian militiamen exchanged mortar and rocket fire near two villages southeast of Beirut. No casualties were reported.
The British Defense Ministry has announced that five British mine-hunting ships that have been helping an international task force search the Red Sea for mines at Egypt’s request have been ordered to sail for home Monday. Mysterious explosions in the Red Sea that are believed to have been caused by mines have damaged about 20 ships since July 9.
Unidentified warplanes hit a tanker loaded with nearly 20,000 tons of volatile liquefied gas Friday, and today the blazing and abandoned ship drifted in the Persian Gulf, threatening a huge explosion, shipping officials said. The 23,796-ton Panamanian-registered Gaz Fountain, hit by three rockets fired from an aircraft in the central gulf Friday morning, was the third victim of the gulf shipping war between Iraq and Iran in four days. The shipping officials said the tanker was abandoned by its 29 Spanish and 4 Greek crew members, who were all safe. Tehran Radio blamed Iraq for the attack. But the shipping officials said Iran probably made the attack. They said it took place well out of range of Iraqi aircraft in an area of several previous Iranian attacks on shipping, and there was no claim of responsibility from Baghdad.
Salvage tugs were heading for the vessel, and shipping sources said they would survey it from a distance until the likelihood of an explosion could be assessed. “The major fear is that there is going to be a big explosion,” one said. The managing director of the Naftomar Shipping Company, Panayotis Angelis, said in Athens today that the crew was taken to an island off Iran and would be flown to Tehran. The ship, the first liquefied gas carrier to be hit in the gulf tanker war, loaded 19,500 tons of pressurised propane and butane gas at the Saudi Arabian port of Ras Tanura late on Thursday. On Thursday the 21,206-ton Indian tanker Jag Pari was hit as it headed for Kuwait in what its captain said was an Iranian air raid. The shipping officials said the two attacks were probably in retaliation for an Iraqi attack on Monday on the Hong Kong-owned supertanker World Knight.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was quoted in an interview published in Paris as saying Iraq is ready to consider resuming normal relations with Washington but insisting that the move should not be considered an attempt to solicit U.S. aid in his war with Iran. “Today it is clear that Iraq can continue its struggle alone without anyone’s help, including the big powers,” Hussein was quoted as saying in the Arabic-language weekly Al Watan al Arabi. Iraq cut official ties with Washington following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Vietnam reaffirmed today that it wanted improved relations with China and the United States. The Communist Party newspaper Nhân Dân, in a commentary carried by the Vietnam News Agency and monitored in Bangkok, said, “We want to restore our traditional friendship with the Chinese people and to normalize relations.” It added: “We have always considered the American people our friends and are ready to solve together with the United States all pending questions if the U.S. is sincere in its desire to contribute to peace.” Vietnam’s border with China has remained tense since the two countries fought a border war in 1979. The United States has said it will not normalize relations until Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia.
Japan mobilized about 8,500 policemen to patrol stores in the western part of the country, where an extortionist gang threatened to slip 30 cyanide-laced packets of candy onto shelves this weekend to force the Morinaga confectionery firm to pay $400,000. The gang, calling itself “The Man With 21 Faces,” said it earlier planted 20 poisoned packets of candy; 13 were found last week.
Pope John Paul II returned to Rome today after a three-day tour of Spain and the Caribbean to commemorate Columbus’s voyage. In a conversation with reporters on his plane today, the Pope said that he was ready to visit Cuba if invited, and that Roman Catholic bishops would continue seeking solutions to guerrilla conflicts in Central America. During his trip, the Pope met with five Cuban bishops who were allowed to attend a meeting of Latin American bishops in the Dominican Republic. “I am ready to go everywhere,” the Pope told reporters. “In the case of Cuba the invitation is missing. We shall see. All we can say is there is a lack of a possibility, a lack of an invitation.”
A rebel leader and an intermediary met in Panama to discuss details for a meeting in El Salvador next week between Salvadoran rebels and President Jose Napoleon Duarte. The arrival of the intermediary, the Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador, Gregorio Rosa Chavez, appeared to satisfy rebel demands that final preparations for the meeting be discussed beforehand in direct talks.
Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry has named replacements for three Cabinet members who resigned to run for Congress next April. Luis Percovich, who had been interior minister, became prime minister and foreign minister, replacing Sandro Mariategui, who will run for the Senate. The new interior minister is General Oscar Brush, formerly war minister.
General Samuel K. Doe, the Liberian leader, ordered the release of 10 prominent people accused of plotting to overthrow him, the Monrovia radio said today. The radio, monitored here, quoted General Doe as saying the 10 were freed last Sunday because lengthy trials and imprisonment for them could delay Liberia’s return to democratic rule and its efforts to overcome economic problems. The 10, detained last August, included Nicholas Podier, a former major general and speaker of the interim National Assembly, and Professor Amos Sawyer, who has declared his candidacy for the presidential election planned for next year. Professor Sawyer’s arrest set off student demonstrations at the University of Liberia in Monrovia in which several people were reported killed. The university was later closed.
Joshua Nkomo, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, accused Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s Government today of a reign of terror and of leading the country to disaster. In an unusually sharp speech, Mr. Nkomo listed what he said were the Government’s failures since independence in April 1980 and charged that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union, which is committed to one-party rule, was engaged in a “mindless pursuit” of power. Mr. Nkomo, speaking at the first congress of his Zimbabwe African People’s Union since independence, said, “In less than five years, the promise of independence has turned into a reality of suspicion, terror and failure.” He called for a united front across party lines to deal with what he termed a crisis facing Zimbabwe. Mr. Nkomo and Mr. Mugabe formed a guerrilla alliance in 1976 to fight white rule in what was then Rhodesia, but they split shortly before independence and are bitter rivals.
Challenger and its 7 astronauts landed at the space shuttle’s home port in Cape Canaveral, Florida, ending an eight-day, 3.5-million-mile journey highlighted by the first space walk by an American woman. By landing in Florida instead of California, where most shuttle flights have landed, NASA can save money and shave up to a week off preparation time for the next flight. It was the second time in 13 missions that a shuttle landed at its launching site. While a few clouds floated in the noonday sky and hawks and turkey buzzards circled overhead, the winged spaceship flew in from over the Atlantic Ocean, announcing itself with a bright vapor trail and a double sonic boom. Captain Robert L. Crippen of the Navy, the commander, steered the white spaceship down the runway, a strip of concrete three miles long and 300 feet wide set in a marshland thick with palm and palmetto, alligator and armadillo.
The 98th Congress, which adjourned Friday, repeatedly defied President Reagan on economic and military issues, slowing the President’s efforts to change the scope and direction of government. In a session rife with partisan warfare between Mr. Reagan and Congressional Democrats, Congress restored funds for health, education and welfare and reduced military spending requests, but did not tackle some of the tough issues it faced.
President Reagan signed legislation raising the nation’s public debt limit by $251 billion to a record $1.824 trillion. The Senate took final action on the measure Friday, voting 37 to 30 to pass the emergency bill that gives the federal government authority to borrow money up to the new limit. The amount is expected to be sufficient through next September.
President Reagan makes a radio address to the Nation about the 1984 Presidential Campaign. President Reagan denounced Walter F. Mondale’s tax and economic proposals today as “the lemon you got rid of four years ago.” Mr. Reagan, in his weekly paid political radio address, said economic growth in his Administration was “not a pipe dream.” Referring to Mr. Mondale, the Democratic Presidential candidate, Mr. Reagan said, “We must ask ourselves one question: What has he ever done or said to suggest, let alone convince us, that his vision can do anything but fail?” Mr. Reagan boasted of policies he said have led to 22 consecutive months of economic expansion without inflation and “challenge the limits of growth.”
President Reagan signed legislation requiring cigarette packages and advertising to carry stern new warnings about the hazards of smoking. The four different warnings from the surgeon general are required to be conspicuous and prominent and to be rotated on a quarterly basis. One warning states: “Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.”
The State Department is erecting anti-terrorist barricades at its garage entrances in Washington that can stop a 6-ton vehicle in its tracks, a department spokeswoman said. The systems rotate from a closed position in the ground to a fully opened position about 24 inches high and are strong enough to stop an explosives-laden vehicle traveling at 30 mph.
Private alternatives to Social Security have been discussed by officials of the Social Security Administration, who are studying proposals for change in the retirement program. Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Martha A. McSteen, said there were no plans to submit any of the proposals to Congress if President Reagan were re-elected.
The Salvation Army in Portland, Oregon, bought bus tickets to send home dozens of street people imported by an Indian guru who changed their minds about living in his commune. Bitter Oregonians contended that followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh wanted street people’s votes to sway local elections. The guru had promised round-trip transportation in case people did not like life at his commune in central Oregon. When some people decided they didn’t like it, followers of the guru failed to provide the return fares.
Representatives of Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers resumed negotiations after making some progress on a contract for 115,000 U.S. auto workers. The talks reconvened at the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, the day after negotiators bargained past their informal deadline of noon Friday. “Progress was being made,” chief Ford negotiator Peter Pestillo said. The union, however, gave no indication as to the status of the talks. Meanwhile, UAW members at General Motors Corp. moved to within several thousand votes of ratifying their tentative agreement.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded South Pacific Island Airways, partly because a South Pacific jet strayed too close to Soviet airspace near Norway. FAA regional coordinator John Gordon said the Honolulu-based airline is alleged to have violated several FAA regulations, including the deviation from course by one of its charter flights traveling over the North Pole. The Boeing 707 came within about 50 miles of the Kola peninsula, a complex of military bases, on September 29, he said.
The 4-year-old son of divorced parents who oppose medical treatment on religious grounds was abducted from the Memphis hospital where he was undergoing court-ordered treatments for leukemia and a staph infection, the police said today. Captain Bill Hylander said the boy, Brett Landreneaux, was apparently kidnapped by his parents Friday from his room at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Brett is the son of Michael P. Landreneaux of Marshall, Texas, and Debra Landreneaux of Smithville, Oklahoma. He was hospitalized October 6. The boy was declared a ward of the Memphis juvenile court because his divorced parents had refused medical treatment on religious grounds, a hospital official said.
No Catholic “voting bloc” is being created by Catholic bishops, according to a statement issued by Bishop James W. Malone, the president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The statement said that politicians may concur with the bishops on moral issues and still disagree Midland, Tex., remains a wealthy city a year after the Federal takeover of its financial pillar, the First National Bank of Midland, which collapsed under the burden of bad loans and was forced to turn over most of its assets to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. As a result, the F.D.I.C., has become perhaps the most dominant economic force in the region.
A World War II vintage seaplane flipped over while skimming the water about two miles off the southern Texas coast today, killing six of the people aboard and injuring the other four, one critically. The four who survived were rescued from the water by nearby fishing vessels, according to spokesmen for the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board. They said the twin-engine plane was part of the Confederate Air Force, an organization of vintage plane owners conducting an annual air show at nearby Harlingen. The plane was a PBY-6A, a seaplane commonly used for naval reconnaissance and rescues in World War II. “There were 10 people on board,” said Lieutenant Phillip Coletti of the Coast Guard. “Right now it appears there are four survivors. All the survivors have been evacuated by fishing vessels in the area.” Mike Rodriguez, a spokesman for the flying group, said the seaplane was accompanied by an aircraft taking photographs of the PBY-6A as it skimmed the water.
Route 66, the highway made famous in song, story, and television, passed into history at Williams, Arizona, with a parade of antique cars following along the same route traveled by pioneers and prospectors. The parade opened elaborate ceremonies marking the debut of an Interstate 40 bypass to replace the last two-lane segment of U.S. 66, which once crossed eight states and three time zones from Chicago to Santa Monica. Songwriter Bobby Troup, who wrote the song “Route 66,” was the guest of honor and played the tune for a crowd of about 500 gathered at a new I-40 exit. Troup urged people to “get your kicks on Route 66” in the song he wrote in the mid-1940s while driving from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles. He cut the ribbon officially opening the bypass. “This is not just a bypass watching history fade into the sunset. It’s the end of an era,” said Williams Mayor James Hoffman. “We are saying ‘goodbye Route 66, hello I-40.’ “
Forecasters issued gale warnings from North Carolina to Massachusetts as Hurricane Josephine’s 85 m.p.h. winds moved northward, but the storm could weaken as it nears colder water. “The strongest winds will slowly die down, and as it moves on the Northeast coast, it should not get any closer to land,” said Bob Sheets, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center. Josephine’s center was about 350 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, as it moved parallel to the coast at 8 m.p.h.
Jon- Erik Hexum, a television actor, was in critical condition today after he accidentally shot himself in the head Friday with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of the CBS-TV series “Cover Up,” a studio spokesman said. Hexum was playing with the gun, simulating Russian roulette and put the revolver to his right temple and pulled the trigger. Mr. Hexum, 26 years old, was transferred to the intensive care unit at the Beverly Hills Medical Center. Mr. Hexum underwent five hours of surgery, performed by a neurosurgical team headed by Dr. David Ditsworth. The explosive effect of the muzzle blast caused enough blunt force trauma to fracture a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel this into his brain, causing massive hemorrhaging. Hexum was declared brain dead on October 18.
John Henry becomes the first thoroughbred to win $6 million.
Hall of Famer George “Highpockets” Kelly died at the age of 89. A fine fielding first baseman, Kelly batted .297 over a 16-year career. He enjoyed his best season in 1924, when he batted .324 for the New York Giants and led the National League with 136 RBIs.
In Game 4 of the 1984 World Series, Jack Morris wins again 4–2. Alan Trammell drilled a pair of two-run homers in the first and third innings to account for all of Detroit’s offense as the Tigers beat Eric Show to take a three games-to-one lead in the Series. Jack Morris got his second Series victory in another complete-game effort, allowing two runs; one on Terry Kennedy’s home run in the second and the other on a wild pitch in the ninth to Kennedy that scored Steve Garvey. Morris allows just five hits. The Padres now must win tomorrow at Tiger Stadium to stay alive.
Born:
Hayden Penn, MLB pitcher (Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates), in La Jolla, California.
Steven Lerud, MLB catcher (Philadelphia Phillies), in Reno, Nevada.
Derek Smith, Canadian NHL defenseman (Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames), in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
Misono [Kōda], Japanese pop singer (Day After Tomorrow; “It’s All Love!”), and TV personality (Quiz! Hexagon II), born in Kyoto, Japan.
Coldmirror [Kathrin “Kaddi” Fricke], German Youtube internet personality, in Bremen, Germany.
Died:
George ‘High Pockets’ Kelly, 89, American Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman (World Series 1921, 22; NL HR leader 1921; New York Giants), from a stroke.
Alice Neel, 84, American painter.
History Diaries 